There are two ways to get a mortgage and pay life insurance. The first is only one pays for both and therefore you will only see in the receipts the name of the one paying. The second way is to split the life insurance in two parts and thus you will see the name of both payers in the receipts. But first you should read the "escritura" and the "documento particular". The First is a legal document issued by the "cartório or notário". The second is a legal document issued by the bank or the mortgage broker. Life insurance is mandatory in Portugal if and only if there was a portugueses bank or other financial institution registered in Portugal doing the financing. A lot of times foreigners prefer not to deal with portuguese banks in order to get lower interest rates.
Solicitors only do anything after getting paid and many of them are not good professionals. I am not a solicitor but I solved many problems they are supposed to solve and nobody has ever asked me for a degree on any course. Because of that I refuse to recommend the work of a solicitor to solve anything. You can get a better deal if you or your mother have a trustworthy friend in Portugal or you can write a letter to the Instituto de Seguros de Portugal.

I would recommend you to get the information on your bank, if eventually there are any policies attached to the bank mortgage. The Bank has this information. The life insurance is not mandatory when a client require a mortgage. My brother in Law died a few years ago, and my sister had to continue paying the mortgage , because Santander didn´t obliged them to have life insurance.

The question made at that time was . Would not the life insurance be mandatory, and their insurance was no.

Make sure your parents have the life insurance attached with the Bank Mortgage, and run it from there.

Good Luck.

P.S. By the way solicitors and lawyers in the Algarve are not easy to deal with.

I am sorry but I will have to disagree with your answer. The life insurance is mandatory in any mortgage in Portugal. But you can do it in a different institution other than the bank you asked the money from. But check with the bank.

I would recommend you to get the information on your bank, if eventually there are any policies attached to the bank mortgage. The Bank has this information. The life insurance is not mandatory when a client require a mortgage. My brother in Law died a few years ago, and my sister had to continue paying the mortgage , because Santander didn´t obliged them to have life insurance.

The question made at that time was . Would not the life insurance be mandatory, and their insurance was no.

Make sure your parents have the life insurance attached with the Bank Mortgage, and run it from there.

Good Luck.

P.S. By the way solicitors and lawyers in the Algarve are not easy to deal with.

I have a Mortgage in Portugal along with my wife. when we took it out we were told that although we had to have life insurance in need not be through the Bank. Great we thought. We had life insurance in England so we thought that would cover it. The Bank made it clear that the insurance from England wasn't the same as what they required. Not understanding Portuguese didn't help. In the end we took out their insurance even though it was much more expensive than our English policy.

I'd advise you to speak to a good lawyer. Mines brilliant. She used to act for the Abbey National when they where in Portugal. If you need contact details let me know.
Good luck.

I've just seen a previous reply saying that Lawyers in Portugal are not always easy to deal with.
In my experience over 30 years (having bought two properties) dealing with Portuguese lawyers is not a lot different than dealing with British ones.
Most speak good English.
Word of mouth is the best way...same as the UK.
Offer still stands, if you need a good lawyer let me know.